Prior art cartons have been used that include a horizontal divider shelf and a vertical center divider that provides some support for the center of the horizontal divider shelf. With this configuration, other means are needed to provide support for the ends of the horizontal divider shelf to prevent it from collapsing when items are placed on it. For example, locking tabs that extend horizontally from the ends of the horizontal divider shelf have been used to engage horizontal slots formed in the sides of the container. This arrangement provides insufficient load-bearing support for the ends of the horizontal divider shelf. As such, it has not proven to be effective, especially where there is a need for a load-bearing shelf that can support heavy products, such as hams, other meat products or containers of liquid.
Such a prior art carton with horizontally extending tabs on the divider shelf that engage horizontally extending slots formed in the sides of the carton is illustrated and described in relation to FIGS. 12 and 13. FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a divider shelf 131 placed on top of a wrap-around closure 143, and FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the carton 130 along line 13-13 as shown in FIG. 12. Carton 130 has a length 167 and width 169.
Divider shelf 131 has two center supports 145, 147, which are foldably attached by a fold line 132 extending in a lengthwise direction 167. Each center support 145, 147 has two ends, with each end being foldably attached to an end support 171, 173. The divider shelf 131 further has a shelf 133 with two leaves 133A, 133B, with each leaf being foldably attached to each center support 145, 147 by a fold line 149, 151, respectively. Each leaf is attached to two locking tabs 135, 137, 139, 141 that extend horizontally through locking slots 155, 157, 159, 161, respectively, of side panels 163, 165 of the wrap-around closure 143. As seen in FIG. 13, the center supports 145, 147 bisect the lower portion of the carton 130 into two lower compartments 175, 177, and the shelf leaves 133A, 133B form an upper compartment 179. A disadvantage of this configuration is that when a downward force 181 is applied to the shelf 133, the horizontal extending locking tabs 135, 137, 139, 141 provide little load-bearing support for the shelf 133. Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for a carton containing a shelf that has sufficient load-bearing capability to hold heavy items such as poultry, beef, produce and liquid filled containers.